Australian Bureau of Statistics

These video tutorials will familiarise you with a range of ABS products that are useful in the classroom. You can view transcripts of each segment by clicking on the triangle next to its heading.
On this page:

Transcript:
QuickStats is designed to provide users with a summary of key Census statistics for a specific area and basic comparisons to Australian data. Start at the ABS homepage, click on 'Census Data' on the left hand navigation menu. Find 'QuickStats' in the body of the page and choose which year’s Census data you want displayed. You can search for a location by using any of the above tabs. Select a location from a series of lists or choose a location from a map. In this example we will type in ‘Fairfield’. Click on the ‘Search’ button and a list of all the places that include ‘Fairfield’ have come up. Click on the scroll bar and drag down to view all locations for your search.
If you’re having trouble choosing a location, click on the Information icon above your location search results list. This page contains descriptions of all the geographies available, to help you make your selection. Select your area of interest from the list. We will select 'Fairfield Local Government Area'. Once a selection has been made, a map appears to check it is the wanted area. If you are happy with the selection, click on the 'View QuickStats' button. You will see the major characteristics, such as population and country of birth, are displayed for your chosen area. For each characteristic, comparisons are also made to Australia as whole. A descriptive commentary on the characteristics is available at the bottom of each data table. Note the Information Icons against the Census Topics. Clicking on the icon will take you to further information about a particular Census variable.
QuickStats data are available for geography areas as large as Australia as well as local government areas, state suburbs and postal areas. Please note QuickStats only shows selected Census topics and the top 5 results for that topic. If you’re after more detailed data, you may prefer to use Census Tables instead. QuickStats is a great resource when students are studying their local community. Why not ask students to make a fact sheet or profile of their chosen area, using a QuickStats report.

Transcript:
Start at the ABS home page. Note the quick links on the left hand navigation menu to access main economic indicators. If you need the latest CPI, Labour Force and National Accounts data, you can access them from here under National Statistics. A good starting point is Key National Indicators.
Key National Indicators present summary tables and graphs on the latest economic and social measures including GDP, CPI, Unemployment and Average Weekly Earnings. The link opens in the Summary tab. You will find tables of key economics and social indicators, and links to the full publication sources of this summary data. Note the summary data includes the latest figures for each indicator, as well as the percentage change from the previous quarter and the percentage change from the corresponding period last year.
Summary tables are a very useful resource for your class as they are easy to find and provide a quick snapshot of the latest key national data. You can switch to 'Graphs' for the same information in graphical form. Similarly, you can access links to source publications from this page. For example, click on the 'Labour Force' hyperlink and then open the publication Labour Force, Australia (cat # 6202.0). As with all ABS publications, it will open on the Summary page.
For more detail go to the Download tab and download the full publication in PDF format or open one of the Excel tables if you’re after a particular dataset. If you would like to view the Glossary, click on the Explanatory Notes tab. In most ABS publications, this is where you will find a brief introduction of the publication as well as a glossary of terms.

Includes: Finding Key National Indicators on the ABS website and a demonstration of how to access source publications.
Duration: 2:25 minutes
Size: 7.01MB Key National Indicators

Includes: A description of some of the main features of the Australian Social Trends publication and where to find it on the ABS website.
Duration: 3:09 minutes
Size: 9.00 MBAustralian Social Trends

Segment 12: Measure of Australia's ProgressTranscript:

Measures of Australia’s Progress came out of the growing interest in assessing whether life in Australia was getting better. One outcome of measuring and reporting on progress is to make sense of the world we live in. Students can use this publication as a rich information source for assignments in a range of subject areas, with a focus on longitudinal analysis. A class discussion could arise about the potential indicators of a country’s progress and the approach taken by ABS to measure progress in Australia.
The Measures of Australia’s Progress publication is found on the left-hand menu of the ABS homepage, under Key Products. The publication opens on the home page to present the latest articles on selected indicators. On the left hand menu under the Summary tab there are links to chapters and all available feature articles. In the 2009 issue, you can also access a 10 year summary for selected indicators. Here, the annual rate of change for selected summary indicators is displayed on a graph. Please note, although publication layouts may vary from year to year, the left hand navigation menu will always provide links to core information available in the publication.
We will go back to the home page via the Summary tab, and click on a topic of interest. There are time series graphs displayed with accompanying commentary. Scroll down to find related publications of interest. A list of all related publications is also found under the Related Information tab. If you would like to access the source data for use with your students, click on the Downloads tab and then click on the Excel icon. The data cube will open in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet on the contents pages. Table topics covered in the PDF publication will be included in this spreadsheet. Open a table from one of the worksheets below. You can also open a table from the body of the page. Simply click on the table number to open the time series data you want. This table is displaying life expectancy for the ten year period 1997 to 2007.

Includes: How to find the Measures of Australia's progress publication and a brief demonstration of key features.
Duration: 3:02 minutes
Size: 8.75 MBMeasures of Australia's Progress

Segment 13: Yearbook Australia

Includes: How to find the Yearbook Australia series and a brief demonstration of key features.
Duration: 1:39 minutes
Size: 5 MB Yearbook Australia

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